Surya is my mentor in the new job. He's a great guy, very smart, very funny and talks reeeeally fast. I work with computers, and thus have dealt with my share of Indian co-workers, and I try to keep my stereotypes supressed. And then Surya calls me today.

Surya: "Cood morning, Chris how are you?"Chris: "Good, Surya, and you?"Surya: "Good, Good. Tell me, what do you know about this 'Floating Holiday'...thing? It says we have four of these per year."Chris: "Oh, it's a few extra vacation days that companies give employees, to take for holidays celebrated in their religion, or country that we don't have off here in America."Surya: "Hmmm. Really?"Chris: "Yeah Really. It's a nod to the growing cultural diversity of the corporate workforce... or something. " (I must have read that somewhere. I would never talk like that otherwise.)Surya: "This is incredible to me. I am working for the company for three years and I never heard of this. I am working like a slave and not taking a vacation day yet until just recently."Chris: "Well, you have every right to take them off."Surya: "This is good something to know. First of November is a major holiday in India, where we burn a lot of crackers." (The image of a flaming 'Saltine' enters my head.) "I mean firecrakers, fireworks. A big day."Chris: "Then by all means, take it off. Just tell your supervisor. Take all four of them by the end of the year or you lose them."

It was like listening to a child asking what this "Christmas" thing was all about.

October 28, 2005

There's some petty stressors going on in our life, but nothing to write home about. (or Blog about, as the case appears to be.) But right now, I'm listening to my Friday All-Day 80's compilation, I'll have a nice evening with my wife and kid tonight, and the smell of my Mother-in-Law's banana bread is in the air.

It helps to let go of the things you can't do anything about for a while and focus on what's right in your life. Don't blow off responsibilities, but nothing short of solving Fermat's Last Theorem requires constant attention and thought without a few hours off. It's like Chainsaw said in the 1987 Mark Harmon classic "Summer School" : "There is a valid biological reason for summer vacation: the human brain needs rest."

Texans Accidentally Try to Ban ALL Marriage

"I do" could become "by golly, we didn't" for more than 4 million married couples in Texas if voters approve a clumsily worded proposed constitutional amendment, opponents said Monday.

Two lawyers said the words at issue could be read to outlaw marriage but courts probably won't kiss that bride. The first sentence of an intended ban on same-sex marriage, drafted by state lawmakers last spring, defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

The second sentence states: "This state or a political subdivision of this state may not create or recognize any legal status identical or similar to marriage."

And not recognizing anything "identical" to marriage could mean not recognizing marriage, said Glen Maxey, who heads No Nonsense in November, an Austin-based group battling the amendment. Automated calls raising the charge are being made to nearly 2 million Texas households, Maxey said.

Save Texas Marriage, an anti-amendment group represented at a Wooldridge Square park news conference by several male-female spouses, said drafters imperiled every marriage, an error that could have been avoided by barring governments from recognizing any legal status "other than" marriage. (LINK)

If Only the Braves would do this for the World Series...

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Elfsborg will refund the admission fee and traveling costs to soccer fans who attended their crushing 8-1 defeat at newly-crowned champions Djurgarden in the final game of the Swedish premier league season, the club said Tuesday.

Elfsborg admitted their performance at Djurgarden was "unacceptable," and promised to refund ticket and travel expenses to fans who made a round-trip of around 435 miles to Stockholm to watch the game.

"We wish that we had been able to say that it depended on external factors, but there are no excuses, no explanations. We were just bad," the club, who finished the season in seventh place, said in a statement. "We want to apologize to all our supporters, members and sponsors and the volunteers who work for our organization." (LINK)

Elmo, Mr. Incredible Arrested in Hollywood

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. -- Last Wednesday, the furry red Muppet named Elmo learned that Hollywood Boulevard is a long, long way from Sesame Street.

In plain sight of children and tourists, Elmo -- or at least, a man named Don Harper in a knockoff Elmo costume -- was arrested here by the Los Angeles Police Department. Elmo was taken down by a special task force created to combat a growing nuisance in the Hollywood tourist district: famous costumed characters who try to be photographed with tourists and sometimes badger them relentlessly for tips.

LAPD officers, posing as clueless foreign tourists in front of Mann's Chinese Theater, also busted Mr. Incredible, the superhero from the animated hit "The Incredibles," as well as a man dressed as the villain from the "Scream" movie franchise. All three icons were arrested and could face charges ranging from illegal vending to aggressive begging. (LINK)

"Weekend at Bernie's - South of the Border"

TIJUANA, Mexico (Reuters) - A motorcyclist with a helmet-wearing corpse strapped to his back crashed in this Mexican city on the U.S. border on Friday and fled on foot, setting off a police murder hunt.

The unidentified driver was trying to ride with the body through the center of Tijuana, south of San Diego, California., when he lost control rounding a curve. He fled the scene, leaving the dead passenger on the curb. Police said the corpse, which had head injuries and bore strangulation marks, had died at least six hours earlier.

"When the police arrived they took the helmet off the corpse, believing at first that he had died in the crash," said Francisco Castro, a spokesman for the Baja California state police's homicide division. "But he had adhesive tape stuck to his face, a knife wound to his forehead, and showed signs of strangulation," he added.

Castro said the dead man had wraps of methamphetamine in his pocket and an unkempt appearance, which led investigators to believe the killing was drug related. We think the killer was trying to take the body to a more deserted area to dispose of it," he said. (LINK)

New Anne Rice Novel:"Christ the Lord"

Having completed the two cycles of legend to which she has devoted her career so far, Anne Rice gives us now her most ambitious and courageous book, a novel about the life of of Christ the Lord based on the gospels and on the most respected New Testament scholarship.

The book's power derives from the passion its author brings to the writing, and the way in which she summons up the voice, the presence, the words of Jesus who tells the story. (LINK)

October 27, 2005

I was going to post this with the weekly digest, but it deserves it's own topic.Trailers are intentionally misleading, (ex: Making "The Exorcism of Emily Rose" out to be a horror movie, when it ended up being a courtroom drama), so why not make them CREATIVELY misleading?

October 24, 2005

Mel and I went to Anime Weekend Atlanta last month and had a blast. (See my Flickr badge on the left for pics.) We went around together, dressed as the Gravitation couple that we were at the last convention and posing for squee-ing teen girls. ("What? You wan us to kiss? Okay, she IS my wife, sure thing.")

Later in the evening, we split up to go to some panels. She went of with some Con friends, and I sat in on an Anime Music Video (AMV) Panel. Well, it ended up being a talk on the nuts-and-bolts back-end of running the website AnimeMusicVideos.org. I, along with half of the people there, were expecting to see short clips of giant robots blowing each other up to the sounds of Godsmack or Nine Inch Nails. So I took off, and I wasn't alone.

Nothing else was going on for the remainder of the hour, and I had brought a cigar with me for just such an situation. Out of courtesy, I picked the bench farthest from the courtyard door, away from the quick nic-fixers and fired up. I had originally bought these cigars to celebrate Phil's glorious exit from the "SHIVER" movie he'd been working on, but Phil doesn't smoke anymore.

Two inches of ash later, a woman in a red plaid mini-skirt asked if she could sit down, since the other benches were taken. I moved my stuff over, not gazing above ankle-level. I could tell she had a nice figure from my peripheral vision, but I didn't look directly. Didn't want to look like a creep.

I didn't talk at first. You never know if smokers at these places wanted to escape FROM silence, or into it. This one was up for smalltalk, though. I mentioned that I was here with my wife and my son was with a sitter, just to get that out in the open. Her daughter was working one of the booths in Artist Alley and she was helping out. The formalities out the way, we discussed the general feelings of an over-30 parent at a convention mostly attended by kids under 21.

The wind shifted, making her seat downwind from me. "Hope you don't mind this," I said, motioning with my cigar. "Not a bit," she said, exhaling, "I'm smoking cloves."

It was standard smalltalk, nothing to commit to memory, until she lit up her second cigarette off the stub of the first one. "My son had this problem with skipping school," she began, and I knew something memorable was on the way.

"No matter how much we punished him, he kept on skipping. We took away the computer, grounded him, everything. Nothing worked. Then I sat him down one day and told him 'Look, I can't make you go to school every day, BUT... I do have some vacation days coming to me. So here's what I'm going to do: Next time you skip, I'm going with you to school the next day. I'll be with you, every class, all day. And I'm going to wear that red plaid mini-skirt and midriff shirt, and put my hair up in a ponytail. I won't talk, I'll just sit at a desk in the back, sucking on a lollipop all during class. The day after that, I'll come in my jogging suit with nothing but a sports bra and thong underneath. I've got a week of vacation, so it'll go on like that for seven school days.'"

"'And if all your friends don't think I'm a MILF already, they will by the time that week is over,'" she said, and then stood up for me to take in the aforementioned outfit. She had the body to pull it off, no doubt. But she also seemed to be someone who depends too much on her looks to get though life, which is quite a negative in my book. She was a woman who was used to men gaping at her, and my lack of attention probably threw her off so badly that she had to resort to standing up and doing the "TA-DA" pose to get a full glance.

And a glance was all she got. I laughed and looked down at my feet again. She took one last drag and stubbed out the clove on the concrete. "Never had another problem with him skipping school," she exhaled. I nodded in approval. Creative parenting. Use the skills that you have, I suppose.

October 19, 2005

I'm writing little batch automation programs for my company, and I've incorperated a little script to ZIP up reports and automatically mail them out to people. Saves me a lot of time and hassle.

My name for this little wonder? "AutoMAIL". To most, a rather unimaginative name for an automatic mailer program. But to the Anime Initiated, a tidy little reference to the series Full Metal Alchemist. Self-amusement like this is just one of the perks to this job.

October 14, 2005

UNICEF Bombs the Smurf Village

The people of Belgium have been left reeling by the first adult-only episode of the Smurfs, in which the blue-skinned cartoon characters' village is annihilated by warplanes.

The short but chilling film is the work of Unicef, the United Nations Children's Fund, and is to be broadcast on national television next week as a campaign advertisement. The animation was approved by the family of the Smurfs' late creator, "Peyo".

Belgian television viewers were given a preview of the 25-second film earlier this week, when it was shown on the main evening news. The reactions ranged from approval to shock and, in the case of small children who saw the episode by accident, wailing terror. (LINK)

"Rogue Choir" Forceably Removed from Church

CHARLOTTE HARBOR — The pastor of a Charlotte Harbor church had 16 church members booted from a service after they allegedly refused to stop singing and let the clergyman preach.

Deputies were called at 10 a.m. Saturday by Pastor David Noel of the Seventh Day Adventist Church on Harborview Road. Noel told a deputy he was instructed by regional church superiors to involve law enforcement to remove the rogue choir. The deputy issued trespass warnings to the group, and all 16 left the church without incident.

The sheriff's office got another call from the church shortly before noon when a parishioner wanted to file assault charges against Noel.

Edourd Pierrelus, 57, of Port Charlotte, said Noel got mad at him, hit him in the chest and twisted his earlobe during a church service a week earlier. (LINK)

Is the "iBoob" In Our Future?

Computer chips that store music could soon be built into a woman's breast implants.

One boob could hold an MP3 player and the other the person's whole music collection. BT futurology, who have developed the idea, say it could be available within 15 years.

BT Laboratories' analyst Ian Pearson said flexible plastic electronics would sit inside the breast. A signal would be relayed to headphones, while the device would be controlled by Bluetooth using a panel on the wrist.

According to The Sun he said: "It is now very hard for me to thing of breast implants as just decorative. If a woman has something implanted permanently, it might as well do something useful." (LINK)

October 12, 2005

I feared that it would happen sooner or later. CafePress suspended most of my t-shirt & bumper sticker designs for the Arms of Middle Earth shop. And the only way to get the designs cleared again is to make my case with Tolkien Enterprises and their packs of lawyers.

Now I expected this to happen eventually for some items, but for some brain-dead reason, they also flagged pictures of us dressed as Lord of the Rings characters as "Infringing", as well as pictures of two guys dressed as Pirates of the Carribbean. (That's not even their MOVIE!)

I was up late last night preparing my rebuttal for the lawyers. It wasn't ALL infringing, was it? Okay, I'll start with the Balrog. Tolkien didn't INVENT the Balrog, it's a demon from existing folklore, right? WRONG. Ends up he did create the Balrog, and it became so well-known that it became part of the public perception of demon folklore. "But since it's effectively part of the public domain, shouldn't it be fair use to use the word on a T-shirt?" I reasoned. WRONG. Here's a clip from the Sources of Dungeons & Dragons:

Demon, Type VI (Balor)Originally named Balrog, it was taken from Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. It was renamed "Type VI Demon" (with one example being named "Balor") after the Tolkien estate asked TSR to stop infringing Tolkien's copyrights.

Okay, so the lawyers at the firm I'm about to make my case to... convinced the most popular role-playing game of all time to take the Balrog out. And little old me has what kind of chance at succeeding where they failed?

Needless to say, I think I'm going to have to concede the Balrog design. and maybe everything else. I doubt that these lawyers will consider the fact that Arms of Middle Earth has only 200 members, and only about 20 of them have ever bought this potentially-infringing merchandise.

The roof and three interior walls of the Aardman Animations building in Bristol, west England collapsed after the blaze tore through the Victorian building, fire officials said

The fire broke out at about 5:30 a.m. (0430 GMT), with flames reaching 100 feet into the air. The cause of the blaze was being investigated.

A spokesman for Aardman said the building housed props and sets from the company's history, including its first three "Wallace and Gromit" films.

No one was in the building when the fire broke out. Aardman said the sets and props from its latest film, "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit," were not caught in the blaze.

Aardman has used stop-motion clay animation to create a series of acclaimed films, including three shorts featuring cheese-loving inventor Wallace and his resourceful dog Gromit.

The sets from those shorts -- "A Grand Day Out," "The Wrong Trousers" and "A Close Shave" -- are all thought to have been destroyed, along with those from "Chicken Run" -- Aardman's first feature-length release. (LINK)

Now call me crazy, but a devistating fire on the weekend of the studio's biggest success sounds a bit too much of a coincidence to me. I'm thinking it was arson. But who has the motive? Who would want to take out an animation studio? Melissa thinks I'm a nutter, but I think it was another Rival animation studio named Disney.

Disney courted Aardman Studios back in the 90's, but Nick Park et al kept saying "No thank you, we'd quite like to keep our creative control and merchandising rights." And when Katzenberg (leading the Disney wooing efforts) left the Mouse and started up Dreamworks SKG (where he's the K between Spielberg and Geffen), he finally offered Aardman complete creative control and they agreed to sign on.

Disney's been hurting for an animation hit, now that Pixar's jumped ship, so I'm thinking it was industrial espionage or at the very least, the actions of a far-right militant wing of European Disney fans. Michael Eisner just stepped down from his position as Chairman of Disney this past week. COINCIDENCE? Now that he's not tied to the company, the hit can't be tied back to him. Again, call me a conspiracy theory nut, but it just seems like too many coincidences.

October 07, 2005

I have to send out a huge Thank YOU to Foe for giving me one of his Preview passes to see Wallace and Grommit in Curse of the Were-Rabbit. I love W&G ever since "The Wrong Trousers", and this is absolutely their best yet. Lots of great humor, great characters, amazing animation, and a good dose of subtle Adult-related humour for the older kids among us. I give it 4 out of 4.

"Millions have enjoyed this back-pain Tratment..."

SEATTLE (Reuters) - An Oregon woman whose doctor convinced her that he could cure her lower back pain by having sex with her is suing him and his medical clinic for $4 million, according to legal documents obtained on Monday.

The doctor, Randall Smith, who was 50 at the time, was stripped of his license and sent to jail for 60 days last year for charging the state's Oregon Health Plan $5,000 for his 45-minute "treatments" involving the woman.

"Dr. Smith's medical treatment included intercourse in which he told plaintiff was needed to help alleviate plaintiff's lower back and lower extremity pain," the former patient said in the lawsuit. (LINK)

13 Ft. Python Chokes on 6 Ft. Gator

MIAMI - The alligator has some foreign competition at the top of the Everglades food chain, and the results of the struggle are horror-movie messy.

The gory evidence of the latest gator-python encounter,the fourth documented in the past three years, was discovered and photographed last week by a helicopter pilot and wildlife researcher.

The snake was found with the gator's hindquarters protruding from its midsection. Mazzotti said the alligator may have clawed at the python's stomach as the snake tried to digest it.

In previous incidents, the alligator won or the battle was an apparent draw. (LINK)

Epcot Dolphins Learn to Sing "Batman" Theme

Scientists have taught dolphins to combine both rhythm and vocalisations to produce music, resulting in an extremely high-pitched, short version of the Batman theme song.

The findings, outlined in two studies, are the first time that nonhuman mammals have demonstrated they can recognise rhythms and reproduce them vocally.

"Humans are sensitive to rhythms embedded in sequences of sounds, but we typically consider this skill to be part of processing for language and music, cognitive domains that we consider to be uniquely human," says Professor Heidi Harley, lead author of both studies.

Gordon Bauer, associate professor of psychology at the New College of Florida who did not work on the studies, says, "This is the first report, to my knowledge, of a nonhuman mammal's ability to discriminate rhythmic patterns." (LINK)

Item of the Week : Steven Seagal Beverage

Lightning Bolt, the one and only energy drink crafted by martial arts expert and herbal specialist Steven Seagal, is the only all natural 100% juice energy drink on the market. This long lasting energy elixir is made with key ingredients from all over the globe. With a healthy dosing of Tibetan Goji Berry, Asian Cordyceps, B-Vitamins, Green Tea, Yerba Mate, Ginseng, Ginkgo Biloba, Guarana, and Policosanols, Lightning Bolt will give you the strength you need to punch your adversary’s faces through plate glass windows day in and day out!

Oh and it gets better, Steven Seagal’s Lightning Bolt is available in 2 great juicy flavors! Cherry Charge brings you the great taste of freshly squeezed cherry juice, while for those of you that desire a slightly less sweet drink can partake of the true Asian Experience. Either way, you still get a powerful bolt of energy delivered into your body that Steven Seagal precisely blended for lasting maximum performance. So get ready to take on the world with new meaning with Steven Segal’s own Lightning Bolt Energy Drink! (LINK)

Item of the Week 2: The Wake-Up Grenade

The Sonic Alarm makes the whole 'getting them out of bed' exercise a very simple, and indeed amusing, operation. Looking like an old-fashioned comedy hand grenade, the Sonic Alarm will wake pretty well anything up. Simply pull the pin, yell an emphatic "fire in the hole" and lob the grenade into the sleeper's room. After ten seconds a very annoying and piercingly loud noise (there are three volume settings) will blast out from the alarm. That's not all however, what makes this especially great is that to stop the alarm the sleeper has to find you so you can put the pin back in. It's stupid, and brilliant, and will be the bane of every over-sleeper on the planet. (LINK)

October 06, 2005

We just got back from a family trip to DisneyWorld this past weekend. I never thought I'd say this, but I'm...GLAD... that Melissa and I went often to DisneyWorld before we had Matthew. Because now that we can't see everything in the parks, we're not so down-hearted about it. We know it's mostly about the kid's experience now, and we can prioritize the most important things for us to do.

While he's down for his always-too-short nap in the park, Mel and I trade off babysitting the sleeper and the other goes solo for a while. In Epcot, I got to ride Mission:Space TWICE and Test Track once during his 1.5 hr nap (single-rider lines are great). Melissa didn't end up taking advantage of her free time in the Magic Kingdom, though, and we got trapped in a store on Main Street. Sleeping kid in the stroller, and a Marching Band at every door threatening to wake him up and thus make him a temper-ball for the rest of the day.

A couple of amazing things we discovered about Matthew:

1. He is OBSESSED with water.

We took him in the pool for the first time ever. He pretty much jumped right in. Even when he fell in, he righted himself and climbed in more carefully the next time. And every park we went to, the WATER was the star attraction. We were walking through the countries of the world in Epcot, and all he said was "Look! WATER! Wanna see Water!" The next day, we had a character meet with Stitch, Buzz LightYear and The Incredibles (all his favorites) ALL TOGETHER. What did he want to look at? The bubbly water tube behind the characters. This is what we get from having a child born under a water sign.

2. Matthew has the Smart-Ass Gene

This should come as no surprise, since his parents are both dominant carriers, but I didn't expect it to EXPRESS to early. We were walking to the bus stop, Matthew happily bounding ahead, and Mel says "Matthew, slow down! Mommy and Daddy can't go that fast." So the little guy-- Still 3 1/2, mind you -- starts walking in slow motion and saying "sllllooooooowwwwwww".

3. Matthew Loves Roller Coasters (YES!)

"Wanna ride CHOO-CHOO!!" he shouted, pointing to the spiny mountaintops of BTMR. "Um, Kiddo, that's not an ordinary choo-choo. It's very fast and scary for a kid," I told him. He shook his head."No, Wanna RIDE it!"Sure enough, 40" was the height requirement, and he just cleared it. He held tight on a few of the high-G turns, but he rode it like a champ and talked about it all day long.

4. He (and WE) Need a Day Off Between Parks

Especially if you're doing a 7AM wake-up, in the parks all day, see the fireworks and wait for a bus until 10 PM kind of day. Otherwise, meltdowns abound, like any other kid his age.